A blog devoted to the criminal laws regulating and punishing sexual violence

February 15, 2007

Challenge in North Carolina to Adam Walsh Act

Typepad swallowed my attempted posts yesterday, so I'm playing catchup today. However, before I get to news from yesterday, there is some interesting developments for those of you following legal challenges to the Adam Walsh Act.

In US v. Comstock, in the Eastern District of the North Carolina, the defense has just filed a motion to dismiss the government's petition for a “Certification of a Sexually Dangerous Person” pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 4248. This is an important challenge to the Adam Walsh Act and I'm very interested to see how this case proceeds. I'm also excited to see the Commerce Clause challenge front-and-center in the defense's brief as that was an issue I thought was mishandled by the district court in the Madera case. I haven't had time to read the defense's brief in full yet, but here is a taste of the Commerce Clause portion:

In the case at bar, Congress did not make any findings of impact on interstate commerce directly related to the section of the Adam Walsh Act (“Act”) which created 18 U.S.C. § 4248. While “Congress normally is not required to make formal findings as to the substantial burdens that an activity has on interstate commerce, the existence of such findings may enable [the Court] to evaluate the legislative judgment that the activity in question substantially affect[s] interstate commerce, even though no such substantial effect [is] visible to the naked eye.” Lopez at 563. When finding the law unconstitutional in Lopez, the Supreme Court noted that neither § 922(q) “nor its legislative history contain[s] express Congressional findings regarding the effects upon interstate commerce of gun possession in a school zone.” 515 U.S. at 562.

Prior to filing the motion to dismiss, the defense also filed a motion for an in-court hearing which raises interesting legal issues about the difference between a Walsh Act civil commitment hearing and other civil commitment hearings.

If you have any interest in these issues, I highly recommend reading the two motions I've uploaded here!